History Main / LivingShip

You know what's cooler than a CoolShip? A cool ''{{organic|Technology}}'' ship. A ship that lives and grows and heals any space battle damage as you go.

* ''VideoGame/SepterraCore'': Helgaks is a domesticated species of animals that have certain aptitude to flying. Technologically superior race of "the Chosen" has battle fleets of ships which are essentially grown out of helgaks.

* Towards the end of ''Series/ChikyuuSentaiFiveman'', [=FiveRed=] accidentally discovers that Vulgyre, the Zone's spaceship/SupervillainLair, was [[GeniusLoci actually alive]]! [[spoiler:Turns out, he was in fact the true leader of Zone (the supposed leader, Empress Meadow, was an illusion) and has been a GodhoodSeeker to become a [[OneWingedAngel Galactic Super Beast]]. [[EvilWillFail Zone pretty much falls apart after that revelation]] (one member in particular having a VillainousBreakdown), while Vulgyre succeeds in his plan, becoming a BotanicalAbomination, but is weakened by the Sidon flowers, and ultimately the Fivemen defeat him for good.]]

* ''Film/10CloverfieldLane'': By the ending, [[spoiler: our protagonist is spotted by an alien ship that is shown to have a biological maw as it begins lifting the vehicle she was hiding in to devour her.]]

* ''Film/{{10CloverfieldLane}}'': By the ending, [[spoiler: our protagonist is spotted by an alien ship that is shown to have a biological maw as it begins lifting the vehicle she was hiding in to devour her.]]

* ''Anime/TenchiMuyo'': The Juraian spacecraft are powered by living, semi-sentient trees. [[spoiler: The parent of them all is not only fully sentient, but a goddess -- and the alter ego of one of the main characters.]] Also, Ryo-Ohki and Fuku, who are the cute mascot characters that transforms into a LivingShip.

** Literature/FactionParadox is here to remind you: LivingShip + SapientShip + TimeTravel + PsychoPrototype = OhCrap

* In the ''Literature/{{Uplift}}'' novel ''Heaven's Reach'', many Jijoan colonists are [[spoiler:taken to explore distant galaxies aboard a hydrogen-based LivingShip.]]

* ''Webcomic/{{Dreamcatcher}}'': has a race of [[ToServeMan parasitic]] aliens whose biology is based on [[FungusHumongous fungus]] -- like those fungal parasites that [[NauseaFuel eat ants from the inside out]]. This allows them to [[SelfDestructMechanism blow up]] their LivingShip like a puffball if attacked.

** ''GURPS Bio-Tech'' also has rules for these.

* These are called "[[https://orionsarm.com/eg-article/460db3c4051b7 bioships]]" in ''WebOriginal/OrionsArm''. Ones designed for war are instead called "biowars". Some bioships are even capable of reproducing.

* In ''TabletopGame/{{Spelljammer}}'', the space elves' ships are grown, not built. The titular Spelljammer itself would also qualify.

** The Necron's technology is made out of the same living metal as they are and have AIs with varying degrees of sentience just as the Necrons themselves. Same as wraithbone this living metal can heal itself and is often grown into shape as much as it is forged. This means their ships are slightly more recognizable as alive than Eldar ships.

* The Authority's home base, The Carrier, counts, even down to being a DeadpanSnarker.

* Bioship, the resurrected version of Biotron from ''ComicBook/{{Micronauts|MarvelComics}}.''

* ''VideoGame/SpacePiratesAndZombies'' plays this trope mostly straight -- if Zombie Critters kill all the crew of any ship -- be it enemy, ally, or YOUR VERY OWN, the ship transforms into a purple-tinted dumb-but powerful monster ship which has partially organic hulls. Oh, and they regenerate hull HP. This trope is played even more straight with the Zombie Breeders -- they are mostly organic , save for the random bits of spaceship in and on them. Because they generate Rez, they can replicate human ships without need of victims -- this is why they can LAY EGGS which HATCH INTO FULL-SIZED BREEDERS.
* ''VideoGame/{{Starcraft}}'': The purely organic Zerg have several units capable of traveling through space, including Overlords, which can carry land units with them. The ExpandedUniverse adds the Behemoths, originally a race of {{Space Whale}}s that were assimilated in order for the Swarms to leave Zerus, their original homeworld. There's also the Leviathan, a massive hulking Zerg that dwarfs the Terran Battlecruiser and serves as Kerrigan's {{Battlestar}}.

* ''Film/MenInBlack3'': The Boglodite fleet that starts its invasion in 2012 right before Agent J can [[TimeTravel time jump]] and fix the timeline to avoid it appear to be chromed {{LivingGasbag}}s with fleshy, pulsating, tentacled underbellies.

* ''Film/MenInBlack3'': The Boglodite fleet that starts its invasion in 2012 right before Agent J can [[TimeTravel time jump]] and fix the timeline to avoid it appear to be flying chromed cockroaches with fleshy, pulsating, tentacled EldritchAbomination underbellies.

* ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'': Species 8472 used living ships that were so powerful, the Borg themselves [[EnemyMine formed an alliance with]] ''Voyager'' to defeat them. ''Voyager'' itself had biological components. The most often mentioned were "bioneural gel packs" which acted as computer processors. The ship was once nearly destroyed because some bacteria from cheese making got into the system.

* In Spielberg's 2005 adaptation of ''Film/WarOfTheWorlds'', the [[TripodTerror Tripods]] appear to have an organic component to them, although it isn't clear exactly how far this extends beyond the "mouth" [[spoiler:that one uses in an attempt to take Ray]]. If they need to feed frequently on something as large as a person, though, then the amount of living matter inside of one is probably significant.

* ''VideoGame/{{Warframe}}'': Sentients come in many shapes and sizes, but the greatest of them are massive intelligent warships. In theory they are machines, but they are so incredibly advanced that it is very difficult to draw the line between artificial and living beings. They speak of their wombs, as well as their parents and children. Hunhow was once a Sentient warship, now reduced to a [[{{BFS}} greatsword]] but still very intelligent and dangerous. The Eidolon was split into three {{Kaiju}} called Teralyst, Gauntlyst, and Hydrolyst, as well as countless tiny Vomalysts. Unlike Hunhow, the Eidolon is now mindless, its scattered pieces wandering the Plains trying in vain to recombine.

* ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|2003}}'': The Cylons of the reimagined series, despite their mechanical natures, use biotechnology in virtually all of their spacecraft; fightercraft-sized Raiders are autonomous biomechanical constructs (likened in dialog to trained attack dogs), while the larger basestars are at least partly organic and are controlled by a [[WetWareCPU humanoid cyborg]].

--->Frak me... you're alive?!
** By the end of the series, [[spoiler: ''Galactica'' itself becomes one of these. When Boomer blows out a huge section of the hull due to an ill-timed jump, the rogue Cylons volunteer some of their biotechnological material to patch the empty spaces. At the same time, a brain-damaged Anders is set up as the ship's Hybrid.]]

* ''Series/TheOuterLimits1995'': "The Heist" involves a living ship, composed of numerous organisms, which crash-landed in UsefulNotes/NewMexico three years earlier. The only part of the ship which survived the crash was the cooling system.

** In the very first episode "Encounter at Farpoint", the crew discover [[spoiler:that Farpoint Station is]] a living space-jellyfish-type organism.
** In the episode "Tin Man", the titular ship is a living organism [[spoiler:that is [[DrivenToSuicide suicidal]] over the death of its crew and the rest of its kind]].